Memory storage systems for computer systems have a long and illustrious history. Like so much of modern technology, the modern electronic devices were preceded by early mechanical renditions. Among the first successful storage media were punch cards. Introduced to program Jacquard looms, the modern punch card was developed into the form of the Hollerith card and used to encode the results of the 1890 United States census. One of the disadvantages to the punch card was that its relatively low information capacity required the use of numerous cards. The sheer number of cards necessitated fairly complex handling mechanisms. Punched tape simplified handling the storage media. A single roll of tape could be punched, its length tailored to the data capacity required, to replace a stack of punch cards.
The advent of the electronic computer spurred the development of other memory storage systems. Several varieties of magnetic tape storage were introduced. Despite physical differences, they all retained the serial nature of the earlier paper punch tapes. Data was written and accessed in a fixed sequential order. If the information to be recovered was at the opposite end of the tape, it was necessary to spool through the entire length of the tape until the tape location of interest was near the write/read head.
Technologies have been developed which eliminated this serial data access and permitted random access to any piece of data at any time. Varieties of Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM) preserve information within integrated circuits. Other varieties of memory include floppy discs, magnetic hard drives, optical hard drives and optical discs (DVD, RO and R/W). The vast majority of data stored in memory storage units is held in magnetic hard drives, optical hard drives, and optical discs.
There are several reasons for keeping track of when data is written to a memory storage device. Such information may help recover data after a hardware failure within the memory storage device. It may also be of benefit in analyzing memory system failures such as data written to the wrong place. An additional use is auditing files for data tampering or other security issues.
Embodiments of the present invention address these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.